Aplos Reviews

"Intuitive Software and great support"

Comments: We have a robust reporting for our church finances. Better than most I've seen and I think it is in most part due to the ability to talk through the needs with Aplos support and get the help on what functionality meets those needs.

Pros: When I came on board as treasurer we were using the software inefficiently and not taking advantage of functionalities that would help us. I worked with the team asking questions about my needs and they translated those needs to functionality. Within a very short time I created funds and tracked financials that gave a much better picture of our finances.

Cons: I was not around for implementation so I am unsure if the problems were the Aplos or GVC team related. Now I understand the software, it is critical to plan the uses than implement .

"Amazing Fund Accounting software for small to medium non-profits!"

Comments: If you are busy with the stuff that your non-profit is about, and accounting for the organisation is a necessary dragon, then Aplos will be your knight in shining armor to slay it! Having implemented a number of other products for small organisations in the past (Quickbooks, Xero, Sage, MS Dynamics GP) I have to give the award for easiest, quickest & most readily accepted to Aplos. If you want to account for your Funds discretely (separate pots of income) then Aplos just works! Took about an hour to sign up and set up a sandbox (using the trial license) to represent the way my small organisation works - I uncovered a couple of desirable features for product development (see later) but within another 30 minutes I had reports and analysis that would do the job for us so much better than my grumpy accountant! - I showed the software to a user who, after a 5 minute demo, needed no more explanation and was able to enter transactions with multiple expense lines each separately analysed by fund. The user interface is clearly the 'killer' feature - it is so intuitive that I wonder why others didn't think of it (why didn't I think of it?). The transaction input process for most accounting products is the 'ugly baby' of the product - in Aplos it's the wonder child! Some caveats to bring this back to earth... a) The product is currently for the North American market - needs additional features to make it more readily accepted in UK/Europe:
1. Needs a parameterised currency symbol (we don't do dollars!) - but the easy export of reports allows replacement of currency symbol in Excel.
2. Online donations (a great feature!) require a US Bank Account
3. Needs Paypal integration
4. UK giving sites like justgiving.com are very common - integration needed b) Many grant funders want a full budget before grant - we then need to account against the budget elements (e.g. £500 for travel + £5000 for salary). Aplos currently doesn't budget by Fund element (just at Fund level) but the Income Report provides a full breakdown by expense for each Fund (so allowing manual comparison). The free support provided by Aplos is responsive and helpful and I am assured that most of these features are on future development plans. I'm just going to go ahead and sign up for the paid version - I need this software so that I can get on with the purpose of our Charity!! Terry Wilcox
Project Director
In2Out www.in2out.org.uk

"An excellent accounting program for Churches!"

Pros: I have been using Quickbooks for our church for many years. It does not handle funds accounting or tracking of giving very well. I was so happy to have found Aplos! It is a true funds accounting program and tracks giving seamlessly! It is a robust program that I believe excels where Quickbooks falls behind. I highly recommend it!

Cons: No real cons so far. When members split their giving between multiple purposes, I'd like to be able to add them without having to add another row.

"From QuickBooks Online to Aplos"

Comments: From the initial inquiry to day to day activities, the Aplos team has been a great support. They are quick to respond and guide us with the different features. Very refreshing!

Pros: Aplos is easy to use and I appreciate the Fund Reports and the Budgeting Reports. Learning the software was very easy and there are a number of help topics to assist you. Today I ran into a snag and used the chat box and received an answer back very quickly. Aplos has always be very responsive to any inquires.

Cons: It would be nice to have more reporting options. What is there is great, however it would be helpful to have some more analytical reports for number nerds like me. Also 1099 reporting.

"Aplos review"

Pros: The software was easy to learn, as well as, the offered great customer support. I would recommend to others.

Cons: I did not like that you had to use a third party system to receive donations online. I wish Aplos had their own software.

"Bookkeeper"

Comments: Aplos is the best fund accounting software ever. We switched from other software and now our life is much easier. Thank you.

"Aplos Fund Accounting Review"

Comments: Aplos Fund Accounting is a great tool for accounting, it might not be as well known as Quickbooks it packs a lot under its hood.

Pros: It offers the tools that I was looking for, cloud based, multiple collaborators and even donor information.
Having it hosted removes the need for me or someone from my team to make sure it is always up to date and secure.

Cons: When I mentioned to our book keeper that I was looking into Aplos Fund Accounting she wasn't pleased as she was still learning quickbooks. Sometimes the name of the software can discourage people from moving forward.

"Contribution tracker"

Comments: Awesome customer service and very personable

Pros: The ease of use is fabulous it doesn't take rocket science to navigate. Also, the cost is very convenient

Cons: The new bank merging feature I like the previous one much better but it's manageable. It is just a little less user friendly

"Focus is accounting"

Comments: I was searching for a donor management CRM and Aplos was one of the software options sent my way. While I think they would be great for a company or NGO looking to centralize their accounting and other administrative and fundraising efforts, my organization already has accounting set up elsewhere and was looking for a CRM focused on the fundraising and donor relationship offer exclusively.

Pros: Comprehensive platform if you are looking to run accounting, donor management and prospecting, etc from one place

Cons: Heavy accounting focus and that isn't what we needed. No one contacted me by phone like other CRMs, so questioned their customer service.

"Great Software. Highly Recommend!"

Comments: Excellent. Highly recommend for those who are looking for an easy to use software. at under $20/month I can't find anything else that does what Aplos does for the price.

Pros: Easy to use. Able to access financials from any computer with internet access. MAC compatible. Great customer service. They respond very quickly to any emails/questions I've had.

Cons: Wish I could use the software more. I only do the books once a month!

"Friendly to those who aren't finance-savvy!"

Comments: As someone who has been afraid of setting up a chart of accounts, I am so glad that we picked Aplos. I feel like we are going to be able to organize and present our finances so much more professionally than ever before.

Pros: Aplos has many good Introductory materials, and does a lot to help you get set up. There is also good customer support, and helpful webinars for when questions do arise.

Cons: Aplos doesn't integrate with a number of applications, which would be helpful such as payroll, or most Donor Management platforms.

"Aplos 2018 Review"

Comments: Like the platform and the simplicity, I like that it is geared toward non-profit accounting, but I don't like the lack of integration and wide-spread adoption.

Pros: Aplos recently updated their software which made it more user friendly and improved the reporting side.

Cons: Aplos does not integrate with many vital accounting programs and required a lot of manual entry.

"easy and fast reporting"

Comments: Overall, I would recommend this software to others ten-fold. It very organized and I love the click down options.

Pros: What I like most about this software is how user-friendly it is, the ease of use, it's visually appealing, and easily accessible.

Cons: What I like least about this software is I wish there was an option or settings feature, like a check off list, that prompted the user for all things needed for being non-profit.

"Aplos a must-have for churches, particularly church plants"

Comments: Buy this software for your church!

Pros: Menu layout; integration between accounting and contributions; like the ability to enter a person in contribution management and it automatically gets entered in people database; reports are what I need; flexibility in making improvements to the system; they listen well; ease of use, don't necessarily have to be a CPA to use it.

Cons: the refreshing after entering a transaction takes 2 or 3 seconds instead of a split second :-)

"Nice full-featured fund accounting software"

Comments: Aplos support has been great to work with. We anticipate that we will be able to produce better management financial reports with this fund accounting software than we were able to do with our prior software firm.

Pros: Aplos is a well thought out fund accounting package, great for churches and other not-for-profits. Support has been great as we started up using Aplos after our prior software firm abandoned their product. Good online resources to learn from, and also conducted a very thorough live, on-line training call with us.

Cons: We'd like the ability to more tightly control access by user than the system is currently configured. For instance, we'd like to have some users able to print reports and make inquiries, but not enter or modify transactions.

"Confusing"

Comments: I have been working with this software for about 1 month now and some of the information is not going into the right accounts like I want. The information on the contacts loaded up wrong from my excel file, so you can't just erase and re-due the entries because once the name is connected to a payment then you can erase the names. Also, you can look up your check number by check unless you put each check you're looking for into the program sometimes they will come up and other times they will not. So it has been a real learning experience.

Pros: It shows us the breakdown of what coming in an expensed.

Cons: It's not really a church program for church business you have to create all of the accounts and hope you doing it correctly or things will not process correctly and you can't delete files once the number is used that you created to associate with the file.

"Great for church finances and more"

Comments: Much more accurate accounting and record keeping, balancing with bank deposits.

Pros: We made the transition from paper to online accounting via Aplos. It is very easy to make entries and retrieve reports, keep up with contributions and even church membership.

Cons: Users with little computer experience could be put off a bit but that would be the case with any online accounting system.

"Love it!"

Comments: We switched from QuickBooks Non Profit to Aplos last year and haven't looked back!

Pros: Fund based, ease of use

Cons: No way to enter recurring bills automatically

"They just keep getting better."

Comments: I have been with Aplos for probably over 4 years. While with every update there is a small learning curve, it is worth it. They continually add new features. The features are never just for the sake of it. Instead they are very useful. I am no accountant for sure, but I can navigate the software very easily and keep our budget working for us. Excellent customer service!

Pros: Logical Navigation

Cons: I have seen the cost rise as new features are launched.

"After exploring a number of options, I chose Aplos."

Comments: I looked at a number of options for our accounting needs and felt that Aplos was the best option. I still believe that.

Pros: So far, so good. I am still getting my feed wet, but the functionality is good. We were able to integrate the donation form into our website and all seems to be working well. Customer service has been quick to follow up when I've had questions.

Cons: I wish there were more free-form options as they are some limitations with the donation form. They are not huge, but I hope to see more flexibility down the road. Also, the color options for the donation form are a bit limited with some odd color combinations (e.g., red with lavender). Thus far, the cons are minor overall.

"Well Suited for Smaller Churches"

Comments: The support provided us was exceptional from well-trained staff. Satisfied customers are an obvious objective of this company at every level.

Pros: The software's features and format, and setup flexibility, were almost ideal for our needs and preferences.

Cons: The setup process can take some effort so that the software can perform what is desired to be accomplished and is properly customized for it.

"Follow Up Review"

Comments: We have used Aplos since December 2016, and their have been ongoing upgrades and improvements that enhance the operations of the system.

Pros: Improvements, enhancements and options available

Cons: too much additions too quickly without going back to current functions and reports and improving or modifying them.

"Great Church Financial Software"

Comments: After looking at several other church financial software products, we decided on Aplos Software and are very satisfied with the product. It meets all of our needs.

Pros: Aplos software is simple to use and the fund accounts can be easily customized and updated to fit your churches budget categories. Great for volunteer church treasurers. You don't have to be an accountant to use this software. After populating the people management tool and the account set up, all you have to do is enter contributions and maintain the check registry. All of the calculations are performed for you and the reports are built by the software. The reports in the report tool can be downloaded into excel or pdf and used to build monthly treasurer's reports or other budget statements. At the end of the year simply download the contribution statements report, hit print, and you are done. The cost is very affordable compared to other products. The customer service and technical support are outstanding.

Cons: We have had some compatability issues with Internet Explorer 9 in regard to downloading reports. However, the technical support folks at Aplos were quick to respond with a fix. We are a small church so I'm not sure if it would meet all the needs of a larger church. Aplos is expanding their capabilities.

"Perfect Solution For A Church Plant"

Comments: Starting a new church comes with a lot of tasks for a small group of people that are typically spread out between many in larger churches. We didn't have anyone with professional accounting experience, and we didn't need anything complicated to start out. Aplos was the perfect solution! They offered us a discount as a church plant, and got us moving in the right direction. Now four years into the process, Aplos has grown with us. We have been able to easily add others to the account management, add new funds and new features as we have grown, and the customer service has been quick and helpful whenever we have needed it. Some things I like best:
*easy to use
*the "dashboard" gives a quick read on finances at a glance
*fund-based accounting makes it easy to track various donations
*customer service is excellent
*cloud-based design makes access easy from anywhere Things I would like to see improved:
*I would love to be able to integrate payroll with Aplos
*Report can be customized, but not always as much as we would like Overall, this is an excellent product for the value and I would recommend it to anyone starting out.

Pros: Ease of use
Fund-based accounting
Cloud-based design
Scalable
Excellent customer support

Cons: Wish it included payroll integration
Would like to be able to customize reports more

"Aplos is great"

Comments: The Fund Accounting is most helpful for the churches I help. The monthly reports are great to send to my clients so they can see where their money goes and how much they take in. On some clients, the WePay feature is great for online donations going right into Aplos. I love being able to message Aplos right from the client's account with questions.

Pros: The ease of use is best and the access to help in a timely matter.

Cons: You can't set up Vendors with a specific Account # like in QuickBooks.